Statement of Use Filing Checklist: Specimens, Dates, and the Six-Month Clock

By Casey Scott McKay · 2026-05-30

This checklist runs a Section 1(b) application from the day the notice of allowance issues to the day the registration certificate is docketed, in eleven phases a practitioner can work top to bottom. It builds the deadline ladder under 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d) and 37 C.F.R. § 2.88, audits ownership and the Section 10 assignment bar before the clock moves, verifies use in commerce item by item, captures specimens that survive In re Siny Corp., and fixes both dates of first use to documents rather than memory. It works the fork at the notice of allowance — statement of use, extension request, deletion, or request to divide — with fees current to 18 January 2025, model good-cause language, and the minimum filing requirements of Rule 2.88(e) that rescue a filing begun on the deadline. It carries one matter, Brindle & Co.'s FOG SIGNAL cold brew, allowed 13 January 2026, through a divided application, an insurance extension, and a Class 43 specimen refusal. It closes with the mistakes that kill files, a deadlines table, and the rescue options when a deadline is missed or the outer limit has run.

IP and Technology > Trademarks | Checklist | Published 30 May 2026 - Updated 1 August 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

Summary. This checklist runs a Section 1(b) application from the day the notice of allowance issues to the day the registration certificate is docketed, in eleven phases a practitioner can work top to bottom. It builds the deadline ladder under 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d) and 37 C.F.R. § 2.88, audits ownership and the Section 10 assignment bar before the clock moves, verifies use in commerce item by item, captures specimens that survive In re Siny Corp., and fixes both dates of first use to documents rather than memory. It works the fork at the notice of allowance — statement of use, extension request, deletion, or request to divide — with fees current to 18 January 2025, model good-cause language, and the minimum filing requirements of 37 C.F.R. § 2.88(e) that rescue a filing begun on the deadline. It carries one matter, Brindle & Co.'s FOG SIGNAL cold brew, allowed 13 January 2026, through a divided application, an insurance extension, and a Class 43 specimen refusal. It closes with the mistakes that kill files, a deadlines table, and the rescue options when a deadline is missed or the outer limit has run.

Keywords: statement of use · notice of allowance · six-month clock · extension of time to file · insurance extension · specimen of use · dates of first use · use in commerce · request to divide · deleting goods and services · 36-month outer limit · good cause showing · specimen refusal · petition to revive · section 1(b) application · verified statement · itu assignment restriction · uspto trademark fees · registration certificate · trademark docketing

What this checklist is for

You have a notice of allowance on an intent-to-use application. You now have between six and thirty-six months to prove the mark is in use or lose everything the filing date bought. This is the operational sequence: what to docket, verify, photograph, swear to, file, and fix.

Who should use it. Prosecution counsel and paralegals running a Section 1(b) file, in-house counsel supervising outside firms, and founders who filed pro se. For the doctrine — bona fide intent, constructive use under 15 U.S.C. § 1057(c), the unsettled questions — read Intent-to-Use Applications: Claiming a Trademark Before You Sell a Thing. For the reasoning behind each box, read the companion practitioner's guide to statements of use and extension requests.

What you'll need. The notice of allowance from TSDR with its issue date and serial number; the identification exactly as it appears there; the recorded assignment history; a contact who will be present at the first sale; the first invoice and out-of-state shipping record; and $150 to $400 per class in fees.

| Phase | What you accomplish | When | |---|---|---| | 1 | Docket the notice; build the six-date ladder | Day it issues | | 2 | Audit ownership, entity, identification, drawing, title | Week 1 | | 3 | Verify use in commerce, class by class | Week 1, then each period | | 4 | Capture and vet the specimen | The week of launch | | 5 | Fix both dates of first use to documents | With the specimen | | 6 | Work the fork: file, extend, delete, or divide | 90 days before each deadline | | 7 | File the extension request with real good cause | Before the period expires | | 8 | File the statement of use and confirm it landed | After use begins | | 9 | Respond to a refusal | Within 3 months | | 10 | Check the certificate; docket what follows | At registration | | 11 | Rescue procedures | On discovery |

The matter we carry through. Brindle & Co., a Portland cold-brew roaster, filed for FOG SIGNAL on 3 March 2025 in Class 30 ("coffee; coffee-based beverages; ready-to-drink coffee") and Class 43 ("coffee shop services; mobile coffee cart services"). The notice of allowance issued 13 January 2026. Cans shipped three weeks later; the café took fifteen months.

Phase 1 — Docket the notice of allowance

[ ] Pull the notice from TSDR and read the issue date printed on its face. 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d)(1); 37 C.F.R. § 2.88(a).
- Why. Every deadline runs from that date — not the email, not the day the client forwarded it.
[ ] Calendar the first-period deadline at six months, and extensions two through five at twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, and thirty months.
[ ] Calendar the thirty-six-month outer limit in red, on its own reminder track, with alerts at twelve, six, three, and one month.
- Trap. A petition to revive under 37 C.F.R. § 2.66 restores an application abandoned for an unintentionally missed interim deadline. It cannot manufacture a thirty-seventh month. 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d)(2).
[ ] Flag any deadline landing on a weekend or federal holiday, then plan to file a week early anyway. 37 C.F.R. § 2.196.
- Trap. Brindle's outer limit, 13 January 2029, is a Saturday. Do not be the practitioner who tests whether a rule of practice rolls a statutory cap.
[ ] Set a standing TSDR check every thirty days, driven by your docket rather than inbound mail. 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.18, 2.23(b).
- Why. The Office's duty is to send to the address of record, not to confirm anyone read it. Files die because that address belonged to a departed employee.
[ ] Send a client report letter within five business days with the ladder, the fees, and one question: on what date will the first paying customer receive each of these goods or services?
[ ] Add the file to a standing intent-to-use report so it surfaces at every portfolio review, not only at deadline. See Docketing Deadlines and the annual portfolio review checklist.

Brindle, 13 January 2026. Six entries the same afternoon: 13 July 2026, then 13 January 2027, 13 July 2027, 13 January 2028, 13 July 2028, and 13 January 2029 in red.

Phase 2 — Audit the file before the clock moves

[ ] Pull the assignment record for the serial number — the record, not the client's summary. 15 U.S.C. § 1060(a)(1).
[ ] Ask for every IP schedule, contribution agreement, and security agreement signed since the filing date, recorded or not.
- Trap. A transfer voids the application whether or not it was recorded — recordation is notice, not validation. 37 C.F.R. § 3.16; Clorox Co. v. Chemical Bank, 40 U.S.P.Q.2d 1098 (T.T.A.B. 1996). The founder who filed personally and assigned to a two-month-old corporation is Clorox in miniature. See Trademarks in the Deal.
[ ] Confirm the named applicant is still the owner and always was — an application filed by the wrong party is void and cannot be fixed by substitution. TMEP §§ 803.01, 1201.01.
[ ] Determine whether an entity change was a statutory merger or name change rather than an assignment, and record it as such. TMEP §§ 501.06, 501.07.
[ ] Ask the corporate team what financing or reorganization is scheduled, and tell them the application cannot move until the allegation of use is filed.
- Why. The Section 10 restriction lifts the moment you file. Filing Tuesday and assigning Wednesday is safe; the reverse can be fatal. Use the trademark due diligence checklist, then the assignment recordal checklist.
[ ] Read the identification against the product roadmap and mark every item that will not ship inside the runway.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.71(a) — you may always restrict, never broaden. Work it with the goods and services identification checklist.
[ ] Compare the drawing to the packaging actually being printed. 37 C.F.R. § 2.72(b).
- Trap. A drawing amendment is available only if the change is not a material alteration; a materially different mark needs a new application and a new priority date.
[ ] Confirm the notice should have issued at all — no unterminated opposition — and request restoration of jurisdiction for any substantive amendment you still need. 37 C.F.R. § 2.84(b); TMEP § 1109.16.

Brindle, week of 19 January 2026. Clean title, nothing recorded. One finding: the can artwork now carried a "Brindle & Co." house mark above FOG SIGNAL. The applied-for mark remained separable, so no drawing amendment — and no more redesigns before capture.

Phase 3 — Verify use in commerce, class by class

[ ] Ask, per class, whether the mark is in use in commerce today on at least one listed item.
- Authority. 15 U.S.C. § 1127 — "bona fide use of a mark in the ordinary course of trade, and not made merely to reserve a right in a mark."
[ ] For goods, confirm they were sold or transported in commerce with the mark on the goods, containers, affixed labels or tags, or associated displays.
- Trap. A beautiful label does not cure a sale that never happened, and shipments to the applicant's own sales force are not use. Blue Bell v. Farah Mfg. Co., 508 F.2d 1219, 1225–26 (5th Cir. 1975).
[ ] For services, confirm both halves: the mark used in sale or advertising and the services actually rendered to a member of the public.
- Trap. The most common substantive failure on a service-mark statement of use. Aycock Eng'g, Inc. v. Airflite, Inc., 560 F.3d 1350, 1360–61 (Fed. Cir. 2009); Couture v. Playdom, Inc., 778 F.3d 1379, 1381 (Fed. Cir. 2015). Being ready to perform is preparation; performing for a customer is use.
[ ] Confirm the transaction was real, but do not over-worry about scale — two hats sold interstate for $38.34 was use, and there is no de minimis exception. Christian Faith Fellowship Church v. adidas AG, 841 F.3d 986, 993–94 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
[ ] Reject pre-orders with nothing shipped, friends-and-family launches with no invoice, and sales made solely to manufacture a date. Le Galion v. Jean Patou, Inc., 495 F.2d 1265, 1271–72 (2d Cir. 1974).
[ ] Where a subsidiary, franchisee, licensee, or co-packer is the user, confirm the applicant controls quality and can document it — the examiner will ask, and a license with no quality-control terms creates a second problem. 15 U.S.C. § 1055; Naked Licensing.
[ ] Where the goods are federally regulated, confirm the sale was lawful — The Lawful Use Requirement.
[ ] Record the answer as a per-item grid — item, in use yes/no, first sale date, evidence — and re-run it every period.

Brindle, 4 February 2026. Class 30: yes on all three items — 84 cases of 12-ounce cold brew shipped 2 February to a Vancouver, Washington distributor on invoice 2026-0031. Class 43: no on both. The lease was unsigned and the cart was a deposit on a trailer.

Phase 4 — Capture the specimen

[ ] Send written capture instructions to the person who will be present on the first day of sale, the week the notice issues and again the week before launch.
- Why. Specimens are perishable. The most common cause of a bounced statement of use is that nobody photographed anything until the deadline.
[ ] Obtain three photographs of an actual retail unit: full front face, close-up of the mark, and the unit on a shelf or in a customer's hand.
- Trap. Renderings, dielines, printer's proofs, and artwork pasted onto product photos are refused, and fabricated specimens draw sanctions. If the only image is a rendering, the client is not ready to file. Say so.
[ ] Capture every commercial web page by printing to PDF at full length with the URL and access date visible. 37 C.F.R. § 2.56(c).
- Trap. A pasted screenshot is not a web page specimen, and this refusal is entirely avoidable.
[ ] Confirm a goods page shows the mark, the goods, a price, and an ordering mechanism together.
- Authority. In re Sones, 590 F.3d 1282, 1288–89 (Fed. Cir. 2009); In re Siny Corp., 920 F.3d 1331, 1336–37 (Fed. Cir. 2019) ("For sales information:" above a phone number was advertising, not point-of-sale).
[ ] Confirm a services specimen names the services — a photograph of a blade sign reading FOG SIGNAL proves nothing about coffee shop services.
[ ] Confirm the mark is not merely ornamental and is not functioning solely as a trade name or domain name. TMEP §§ 904.07, 1202.03.
[ ] Collect two or three acceptable specimens per class, labeled, and keep the surplus for the day a refusal issues.
[ ] Confirm each reproduction legibly shows enough to identify the specimen, the mark, and the goods or services. 37 C.F.R. § 2.56(a), (c). For color, sound, and configuration marks, see Registering a Non-Traditional Mark.

The capture email, 20 January 2026. "On the day of first sale: three photographs of an actual filled can; print-to-PDF of the product page, cart page, and order confirmation, each with URL and date in the footer; the first invoice; and the bill of lading. Email it to me the same day — not to a shared drive that will be reorganized in April."

Phase 5 — Fix the dates of use to documents

[ ] Identify, per class, the date of first use anywhere and the date of first use in commerce.
- Why. They diverge whenever the client sold intrastate before its first out-of-state order. Both are sworn facts.
[ ] Prove each from a document, not a memory — invoice, manifest, order confirmation, point-of-sale export, bank deposit.
- Trap. Founders round dates to the month, then the quarter, then to whatever improves the story. Opposing counsel will compare the sworn date to the accounting system.
[ ] Confirm first use in commerce is on or before the day you file the statement of use.
- Authority. 37 C.F.R. § 2.88(c); In re Anpath Group, Inc., 95 U.S.P.Q.2d 1377 (T.T.A.B. 2010). A statement of use filed in anticipation of next week's launch is defective, and if the period has closed there is nothing to cure with. Extend instead.
[ ] Claim the earlier dates if actual first use predates the filing date — it will not move the § 1057(c) date but can decide a common-law priority contest.
[ ] Confirm the dates are consistent with the specimen; a spring product line will not support a January date, and the examiner will notice.

Phase 6 — Work the fork: file, extend, delete, or divide

Run this once per class, ninety days before the current deadline.

[ ] In use on every item in the class — file the statement of use, plus an insurance extension if time remains in the period.
[ ] In use on some items, the rest never real — delete the rest and file on what is in use. 37 C.F.R. § 2.71(a).
- Why. Free, immediate, irreversible, and it removes a lack-of-bona-fide-intent target.
[ ] In use on some items, the rest genuinely launching — file a request to divide with the statement of use. 37 C.F.R. § 2.87.
- Why. The child registers now; the parent keeps the filing date, the § 1057(c) priority, and the original clock. $100 per new application, plus separate future fees for each file.
[ ] In use on nothing in the class — file an extension request and revisit in six months.
[ ] Blocked by something you cannot fix inside the runway — divide out what can register, register it, and let the rest run out on purpose. A live registration on two of five items beats a dead application on all five.
[ ] Do the arithmetic before carrying a class "just in case." Extensions one through five cost $625, the statement of use $150, Section 8 $325, Section 9 $325 — roughly $1,400 for a class nobody launched.

| | Delete | Divide | Extend | |---|---|---|---| | Cost now | $0 | $100 per new application | $125 per class | | Cost later | None | Separate SOU, extension, and §§ 8, 9, 15 filings per file | $125 again each period | | Keeps original priority | No | Yes | Yes | | Right when | The item was aspirational | The item is genuinely launching | Launch is real and imminent | | Wrong when | It ships in four months | Preserving a tote-bag class | You have done it four times |

Brindle, 6 February 2026. Three filings the same day: a statement of use for Class 30, a request to divide Class 30 into a child application, and a $125 insurance extension in the child. Class 43 stayed in the parent and took extension 1 in July. $375 in fees; certificate in fifteen weeks.

Phase 7 — File the extension request

[ ] File before the current period expires, not on the theory that lateness will be excused. 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d)(2); 37 C.F.R. § 2.89(a).
[ ] Include the fee per class — $125 as of 18 January 2025 — and a verified statement of continued bona fide intention to use the mark on the goods and services covered.
[ ] For the second through fifth requests, include a good-cause showing. 37 C.F.R. § 2.89(b), (d); TMEP § 1108.02(c).
- Why. The rule lists what counts: research or development, market research, manufacturing, promotion, steps to acquire distributors or governmental approval.
[ ] Write the showing as dated facts involving third parties, never as a sentence about "ongoing development and marketing activities."
- Trap. Filed once, boilerplate is fine. Filed five times verbatim it becomes an exhibit and invites the inference the applicant did nothing for three years. Commodore Elecs. Ltd. v. CBM Kabushiki Kaisha, 26 U.S.P.Q.2d 1503, 1507 (T.T.A.B. 1993).
[ ] Read the goods listed in the request against the notice of allowance before signing.
- Trap. Goods neither covered by a statement of use nor carried by a pending extension are deleted by default. TMEP § 1108.02(d). A request drafted against a stale identification deletes items by accident.
[ ] Consider an insurance extension in the same period as a statement of use. TMEP § 1108.03.
- Why. If the statement of use is examined after the period closes and comes back refused, an extension already on file buys six months to fix the specimen. $125 per class — file it whenever the specimen is less than obvious.
[ ] Start from the extension of time template, then replace the good-cause paragraph entirely. The template is a shell; that paragraph is the document.

Model good-cause language — Brindle's second request, 4 January 2027:

Good cause exists. Since the previous period began, Applicant has: (a) on 14 August 2026, executed a five-year commercial lease for retail premises at [address], Portland, Oregon, for operation of a coffee shop under the mark; (b) on 9 September 2026, submitted a building permit application to the City of Portland (Permit No. [number]), still under review; and (c) on 3 October 2026, taken delivery of a mobile beverage trailer and applied for a mobile food unit license from Multnomah County Environmental Health.

Dates, third parties, permit numbers. Fifteen minutes if you ask the client the right question — and it is the record that defeats a Commodore Electronics prima facie case four years later.

Phase 8 — File the statement of use, then confirm it landed

[ ] Confirm the notice of allowance has issued and the current period has not expired. 37 C.F.R. § 2.88(a), (d).
[ ] Assemble all five elements: a verified statement of use in commerce; the goods and services covered; both dates of first use, per class; one specimen per class; and the fee, $150 per class. 37 C.F.R. § 2.88(b).
[ ] Read the identification aloud to the signatory, item by item, and delete anything they hesitate over.
- Trap. The verification covers all listed goods. Medinol Ltd. v. Neuro Vasx, Inc., 67 U.S.P.Q.2d 1205 (T.T.A.B. 2003) (stents never sold; whole registration cancelled). The standard now requires subjective intent to deceive, In re Bose Corp., 580 F.3d 1240, 1245 (Fed. Cir. 2009), and the Board still finds fraud on it, Nationstar Mortgage LLC v. Ahmad, 112 U.S.P.Q.2d 1361 (T.T.A.B. 2014). Run the fraud self-audit checklist.
[ ] Confirm the signatory is authorized — an officer, a member-manager, a person with firsthand knowledge and authority, or counsel of record. Not the founder's assistant. 37 C.F.R. § 2.193(e)(1).
[ ] Confirm the signatory personally enters the electronic signature. 37 C.F.R. § 2.193(c).
- Trap. A paralegal typing /Ana Sotelo/ because the client is on a plane is a habit in many offices and a defect in a sworn document.
[ ] If the deadline is today and the file is incomplete, meet the minimum filing requirements: the fee for at least one class, one specimen, and a verified statement that the mark is in use. 37 C.F.R. § 2.88(e).
- Trap. Those three give the filing a date, and defects can be cured in an office action response — but this is a floor, not a plan, and it excuses nothing about goods that were not in use that day.
[ ] Save the filing receipt and the submission as filed, then verify in TSDR within 48 hours against the right serial number — a request to divide creates a new one.
[ ] Docket the next deadline and a ninety-day examination check, report to the client in writing, and update the portfolio inventory.

Brindle's statement of use, 6 February 2026. Class 30 only. Both dates 2 February 2026. Specimen: a photograph of a 12-ounce can held at the roastery fill line, with the wholesale ordering page in the alternative. Signed by the managing member, who entered her own signature.

Phase 9 — Respond to a statement-of-use refusal

Roughly one statement of use in four draws an office action, and specimens are the overwhelming cause.

[ ] Diagnose which refusal you have. In descending order of frequency: mock-up specimen; web page that advertises rather than sells; missing URL or access date; mark that no longer matches the drawing; specimen that never names the services; services not rendered as of the filing date; ornamental use; trade-name-only use; dates inconsistent with the specimen; defective verification. The full anatomy of each is in Specimen Refusals.
- Trap. Only one of those ten has no answer. If the services were not rendered when the statement of use was filed, Couture and Aycock foreclose argument — delete, divide, or start over.
[ ] Calendar the three-month response deadline, extendable once by three months for $125. See The 3-Month Office Action Deadline, the office action response checklist, and the office action response toolkit.
[ ] Check the second clock: whether the period in which the statement of use was filed has expired, and whether the insurance extension is on file.
- Why. A timely statement of use keeps the application alive while the action is pending. If it is ultimately unacceptable and the period has closed, there is nothing to file into.
[ ] Call the examining attorney before drafting. Many technical refusals dissolve in five minutes, and the examiner will often say which candidate specimen works.
[ ] Submit more than one substitute specimen, each described and covered by the verification, rather than betting on your favorite.
[ ] Include the verification that the substitute was in use at least as early as the filing date of the statement of use. TMEP § 904.05.
[ ] If the refusal reveals descriptiveness or ornamentation, evaluate Section 2(f) — now available, because the allegation of use is on file. TMEP § 1212.09. See Claiming Acquired Distinctiveness at the USPTO.
[ ] If you amend to the Supplemental Register, warn the client that the effective filing date becomes the date the allegation of use was filed. 37 C.F.R. § 2.75(b).
[ ] On a final refusal, choose among reconsideration, ex parte appeal, and petition to the Director, and calendar the appeal deadline — Appealing a Final Refusal.

Brindle's Class 43 refusal, 28 August 2027. Refusals 3 and 5: the web capture was a screenshot in a Word document with no URL or date, and the blade-sign photograph never said the business was a coffee shop. The fix took an afternoon — a print-to-PDF ordering page showing the mark, the words "coffee shop," a menu, and an order button; the interior menu board; and a branded cup in a customer's hand. Filed 20 November 2027. Registered 15 February 2028.

Phase 10 — Registration and handoff

[ ] Read the certificate against the record the day it issues: owner, entity type, goods, dates of first use, disclaimers, drawing.
- Why. Office errors are corrected free; applicant errors are not, and some cannot be fixed at all.
[ ] Docket the Section 8 declaration between the fifth and sixth anniversaries — $325 per class, 15 U.S.C. § 1058 — treating the grace period as a surcharge, not a plan.
[ ] Docket the Section 15 declaration after five consecutive years of use, usually filed with the Section 8. $250 per class. 15 U.S.C. § 1065.
[ ] Docket the combined Sections 8 and 9 renewal between the ninth and tenth anniversaries and every ten years after. $325 + $325 per class. See Filing a Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use and the Section 8 & 9 renewal checklist.
[ ] Tell the client in writing that the goods listed in the statement of use are the goods they must prove three years from now.
- Why. The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020, Pub. L. No. 116-260, div. Q, tit. II, 134 Stat. 1182, created ex parte expungement and reexamination, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1066a, 1066b, plus a nonuse cancellation ground at 15 U.S.C. § 1064(6). For a Section 1(b) registration the reexamination date is the statement of use filing date. 37 C.F.R. § 2.91(a)(2). Anyone can start it for a few hundred dollars. See Use It or Lose It.
[ ] Turn on what the certificate unlocks: the ® symbol, a watch service, CBP recordation, marketplace brand registries, and demand letters with a registration attached. See Trademark Watch Services and Sending an Effective Cease-and-Desist Letter.
[ ] Decide whether the registration should anchor a Madrid filing.

Phase 11 — Rescue procedures

[ ] Interim deadline missed — petition to revive within two months of the notice of abandonment, or within two months of actual knowledge and no later than six months after the record first shows abandonment. 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d)(4); 37 C.F.R. § 2.66(a). $150, and most are granted.
- Trap. The petition must be accompanied by the missing filing itself, complete with fee, specimen, and verification. 37 C.F.R. § 2.66(c). A petition promising to file later is not a petition.
[ ] Outer limit run — stop looking for a remedy. 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d)(2) is statutory, and no petition, diligence showing, supply failure, or regulatory delay reopens it.
[ ] Search again before refiling. Three years have passed, and applications your constructive-use priority would have beaten may now be blocking registrations. Run the pre-filing checklist and the trademark clearance search checklist.
[ ] File the new application the day use begins, and tell the client in writing what the lost filing date cost.
[ ] If the business changed, ask three questions before spending another dollar: is the drawing still the mark in the market (37 C.F.R. § 2.72(b)); is the record owner still the owner (Phase 2); are the goods on the record still the goods being sold (Phase 6). Two "no" answers means refile.

Common Mistakes

Docketing off the email instead of the printed issue date, and never verifying by TSDR.
Treating the thirty-six-month cap like every other deadline. It is the only one that cannot be revived.
Filing a statement of use before use begins. In re Anpath Group forecloses the fix. Extend instead.
Swearing to goods the client never shipped. Read the identification aloud; delete on hesitation. Medinol.
Sending artwork instead of a photograph, or capturing web pages as screenshots with no URL or date.
Submitting an advertising page for goods. Without an ordering mechanism it is Siny, not Sones.
Proving a service by proving preparation. Aycock and Couture turned on services never rendered.
Skipping the $125 insurance extension, then losing the file to a refusal that arrives after the period closed.
Filing five identical good-cause paragraphs. The record you build is the record a challenger reads back to you.
Letting a reorganization close before the allegation of use is on file.
Carrying dead classes on extensions — roughly $1,400 per class, plus a lack-of-intent target.
Letting a paralegal type the signature, or forgetting that a divided child is a new serial number with its own fee, specimen, and verification.

Deadlines at a Glance

Dates are Brindle's, from a notice of allowance issued 13 January 2026. Substitute your issue date; the intervals do not change.

| Deadline | Brindle's date | What must be filed | Fee per class | |---|---|---|---| | First period (6 months) | 13 July 2026 | Statement of use, or extension 1 as of right | SOU $150 / ext. $125 | | Extensions 2-5 (12, 18, 24, 30 months) | 13 Jan 2027 · 13 Jul 2027 · 13 Jan 2028 · 13 Jul 2028 | Extension request with a good-cause showing | $125 each | | Outer limit (36 months) | 13 January 2029 | Statement of use — no further extension exists | $150 | | Office action response | 3 months from issuance | Response; one 3-month extension available | $125 for the extension | | Petition to revive | 2 months from notice of abandonment | Petition plus the missing filing | $150 | | Amendment to allege use | Filing date through approval for publication | AAU — closes the allowance track entirely | $100 | | Request to divide | With or before the statement of use | Request identifying the goods divided out | $100 per new application |

Fees are those effective 18 January 2025 under 37 C.F.R. § 2.6. Confirm current amounts before every filing.